Maybe it’s the altitude or microbreweries or lingo that seem to inspire a very bro culture in the sports of skiing and snowboarding. Walk into any ski town rental shop and inevitably you’ll meet a dude with a persistent goggle tan and beanie cap who tells you how many days this season he’s been shredding it up, waxing poetic about being on the first chair, in whiteout conditions, where an avalanche threatened his life. It was totally gnarly, he tells you with pride. And then he cheerfully suggests trails where you too can shred.

As a 40-something, one-week-a-year skier, my only concern is not to shred my knee.

And yet amidst all of this testosterone, the world of winter sports is being taken over by women — fiercely competitive and talented female athletes. They are not only dominating on the slopes and in the halfpipe, but have earned million-dollar sponsorship deals along with buckets of World Cup titles and Olympic medals, and are re-defining the sports for girls and women.

First placed Lindsey Vonn of USA celebrates on the podium after she won the FIS World Cup Women's Downhill final race in Are, Sweden, on March 14, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Jonathan NACKSTRAND (Photo credit should read JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images)Getty

Always Be Faster Than The Boys

“Always be faster than the boys” A.B.F.T.T.B. the reigning ski queen, Mikaela Shiffrin has inked onto her helmet – a nod to another female champion, former USA ski team, Heidi Voekler, who signed a poster with that inscription nearly two decades ago for then six-year-old Mikaela. And then there’s Lindsey Vonn, the most successful ski racer in the world, who has fought back after epic crashes and injuries, embodying grit and a superhuman fortitude to continue to compete. And on the halfpipe, America is obsessed with its snowboarding prodigy Chloe Kim, who at 17 years old became the youngest woman to ever win gold at the Winter Olympics in a snowboard competition.

“Having women in leadership roles at every level of our company, isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do,” said Rob Katz, the CEO of Vail Resorts.

In November 2018, Vail Resorts was named a “Champion of Change” by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce for advancing women in a male-dominated industry. And a third of both the Vail Resorts board of Directors and the Company’s Executive Committee are women. All of this is a big deal on the business level and no doubt trickles down into the ski experience, including supporting female skiers and their families on the slopes.

Ski Fearless and Female

Women’s ski weeks and personalized ski programs, taught by female instructors in female-friendly clinics are popular because they encourage and support women to conquer their fears one turn at a time.

“We have many programs for women across our network of resorts – from the Women's Ultimate 4 Ski Lessons, which guarantees a maximum of four women per class to ensure more individualized attention and customized lessons, to Breck Bombshells, which is designed for moms with kids in ski school at Breckenridge and features confidence building-tips for women at all levels,” said Pat Campbell, the first female president of the mountain division at Vail Resorts.

I’ve never taken an all-lady clinic, but the idea of channeling some Lindsey and Mikaela and skiing more aggressively and with more confidence sounds fantastic. So in December on a family ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado, I connected with Jenn Losch, Breck's beloved mountain guide who is known in sky parlance as a “ripper,” which basically means she’s freakin' awesome. Jenn is one part motivational trainer and another part badass trail boss, who knows how to blow up avalanches and rescue skiers in extreme conditions. She likes to use the word “rad” a lot which may explain how at 48 years old, she’s still skiing off cliffs and rocks with the teenagers she trains.

Jennifer Losch, Breck Guides, Breckenridge Ski ResortVail Resorts

Get Over Your Fear

“Fear is not really real,” Jenn tells me as we have lunch in the lodge at the top of Breckenridge’s glorious Peak 7. But women may ski with fear she says because we think, “if I get hurt who will take care of the kids. We also beat up ourselves way too fast. We need to embrace what we have and empower ourselves through it all."

Jenn and I spend the day on and off the chair lift talking about fear, success, and women. Jenn sees skiing as a metaphor for all of the pressure women put on themselves. We want to be perfect. But we tend to hold back a bit and not trust ourselves.

“We need to change our mindset and give ourselves permission to have success,” Jenn says. “Girls are usually good skiers but don’t give themselves enough credit. The guys are always saying dude, rip it up! You don’t hear the girls screaming like that. But technically the girls are often better than the guys.”

Jenn has been skiing since she was in diapers and competed at a serious level for twenty-five years. The sport gave her confidence and made her feel strong and brave and yet as a trainer, she’s faced sexism on the slopes – sometimes from middle-aged men and other times from college guys.

But Jenn is encouraged by what she’s seeing with so many talented female athletes competing at the highest levels. It’s changing our idea of what skiers and snowboarders look like. “Girls today can watch videos online and on their phones of Mikaela and Lindsey and Chloe and think, I can do that!”

After 6 hours of skiing with Jenn on some pretty steep black diamond runs, I too, feel like I could do it.

The next day with my teenage kids’ at my side, I rode the Imperial Express Superchair to the top of Breckenridge’s Peak 8. At 12,840 feet it’s the highest chairlift not only in Breckenridge but in all of North America. My husband opted to sit this one out. Feeling badass and now channeling Jenn, my mountain shaman, my kids and I were ready to ski down some serious terrain. We missed a turn and skied into an ungroomed area where I sank deep into powder, losing my balance. But my knee was still intact and my confidence still soaring.

Breckenridge, Peak 8 - at the highest elevation in North America at a ski resort. Wendy Sachs with her kids, Jonah and Lexi.Jake Lassiter

“How did it go?” my husband asked when we met up later at the Breckenridge Distillery. “Dude, I shredded that run, even wiped out in some deep powpow,” I said. “But it was gnarly!”

I'm a master of the career pivot and a modern multi-hyphenate - an award-winning TV news producer, author, speaker, Capitol Hill press secretary and media guru. I say that I've pivoted so many times, I'm practically pirouetting - and I write about it all in my critically ac...